Avalanche Forecast

Good - The weather pattern is stable

A cold front slowly moving in from the northeast will being continued light perception through Saturday with higher accumulations (up to 10cm of snow) expected on the eastern slope.  Sunny and dry conditions are expected for  Sunday and Monday.  Winds will be predominately light from the northeast to northwest through the period.   A slight cooling trend is expected with the passage of the front and freezing levels will hover around valley bottom over the weekend before climbing back up to 2000m on Monday.

No new avalanches have been reported recently

A thick, solid crust can be found at the surface on all but highest alpine slopes. It sounds like the best riding is in the North of the region where the curst does not extend as high and a thin dusting covers old wind pressed snow in alpine. The recent winds have been light to moderate from the southwest and I suspect that you can find isolated thin windslabs in lee features. Below 2100 to 2400m the crust is effectively capping the snowpack and protecting a couple of buried persistent week layers. The mid-January surface hoar is around 60 to 80cm down. The mid-December crust is becoming harder to find but where it does exist (mainly at treeline elevations) it is over a meter down. At upper elevations where these layers are note protected by the crust it could still be possible to trigger an avalanche form a thin or rocky spot.